Now that TUF 10‘s round-of-16 is in the books, we all have a better sense of who these guys are and how far they’ll go in the competition. So, it’s time to rank the Elite 8 based on their performances. Going from valedictorian to dunce…

JUSTIN WREN Wren put an MMA veteran to sleep, took zero damage in the fight, and made it look easy. You couldn’t ask for a more successful first match than that. Few people knew who this guy was when he came into the house, but suddenly he’s a front-runner. Grade: A

ROY NELSON Like Wren, Nelson used a methodical grappling attack to take his opponent completely out of the game. The only difference is, Wren finished his fight, while Nelson was content to pile on pitty-pat punches until the ref stopped it for him. Not taking any undue risks is a smart strategy when you’re looking at three fights in six weeks, but hopefully he’ll show some killer instinct in his next fights. Grade: A-

MARCUS JONES His ground-game looked sharp last night (except for when he botched the rear-naked choke attempt and Wessel got on top of him), but I still have concerns about Big Baby. How will his questionable cardio hold up in a fight that lasts longer than a minute? How will he do against an opponent that can stick to a gameplan? I’m impressed, but I’m not quite ready to call Darkness a favorite to go all the way. Grade: B+

BRENDAN SCHAUB We have to give Schaub credit for taking on an opponent who wasn’t a total scrub, surviving some early trouble, and walking away with a submission win. It wasn’t pretty, but he definitely proved that he belongs there. Grade: B

DARRILL SCHOONOVER I liked how calm Schoonover was as he set up the triangle on Zak Jensen, who was raining punches down on him — yet another smooth submission victory in a preliminary round that was full of them. But did he need to take so much damage? Other than Mitrione’s achy brain, Darrill might be the most worse-for-the-wear fighter going into the quarterfinals. Grade: B-

JON MADSEN At best, he’s a dependable lay-and-pray artist. At worst, he’ll be exposed the first time he draws an opponent with a decent sprawl. Madsen had a solid gameplan during his lopsided victory over Abe Wagner, scoring takedowns at will. But despite all the blood he pulled out of Abe’s head, there didn’t seem to be much finishing ability on display. Grade: C

MATT MITRIONE He fought with heart, and dominating a well-traveled veteran like Scott Junk has to count for something. Still, gassing out before the end of the first round isn’t a sign of continued success. Grade: D+

JAMES McSWEENEY This guy was supposed to be a kickboxing ace, but his striking looked sloppy against Wes Shivers, and his cardio was embarassing. I’m not quite sure what Rashad sees in him. Grade: D-

Thoughts on the quarter-final matchups…

Roy Nelson vs. Justin Wren: They look the same, and fight the same — the only difference here is age and level of experience. The 22-year-old Viking isn’t quite on Nelson’s level yet, and I’ll be surprised if Big Country doesn’t grind out another methodical victory.

Brendan Schaub vs. Jon Madsen: I think Schaub might be too well-rounded for Madsen. Provided that Schaub can stop the takedown, he’ll control this fight with his striking.

James McSweeney vs. Matt Mitrione: It bothers me that one of these jokers is guaranteed a spot in the semis. Obviously, the fight will be decided by who can last longer. I’ll say McSweeney by ugly decision.

Marcus Jones vs. Darrill Schoonover: This looks like it could be the best matchup of the quarterfinals. Jones looks like a monster now, but if Darrill can take him into deep waters, I see him pulling off a TKO win once Big Baby starts to suck air.

Cagepotato Comments

Showing 1-25 of comments

Do you know the difference between UFC fan and UFC fag? One letter, just one.

Badguy- November 6, 2009 at 6:24 am

It is really to bad about the match making here!
Rashads pet who seems to think he is a world beater: McSweeny is awful and is one cocky mother fucker!

He draws Mitrione who is pretty bad. Actually I think if his cardio was better he would be ok.

Rashad obviously pulled for his boy to get another easy fight.

Top fighters

Nelson
Schaub
Schoonover
Wren
I think are all solid fighters who will do ok in the UFC.

Madsen and Jones are next in line

The UFC should go out and sign Bobby Lashley and help develop him this is the best way to insure the UFC has the future talent rather then Strikeforce.

Lashley could fight a TUF guy in his first fight. Should have did it for the Finale.
Would have been great exposure fighting a guy who has been on TV for so many weeks straight.

Lashley Vs one of the quarter final losers

reddog- November 5, 2009 at 8:49 pm

@831son
Cool story bro!

And who the fuck just posted the encyclopedia up above. Damn it, stop that shit. Cp's servers blow as is. Speaking of blowing, HAL loves cock.

UFC fan- November 5, 2009 at 8:15 pm

Ok killdouche calm down before I ship cali-fag to your doorstep.
Then you can all stick HAL up your ass like the hamster he is.

virpz- November 5, 2009 at 7:56 pm

@ Im going to add a text that I think is more complete on What is the difference between Brazilian and Japanese Jiu-Jitsu

Credit goes to james Chow

A question many ask. But what is the difference between Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Japanese Jujitsu?

The first and most important reason can be found in the art's history and is primary to all others discustersed afterward. When you research the history of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, you will understand that it came from Judo in its time of renaissance. In the early 1900's, Judo was being developed from a variety of Jiu-jitsu styles in order to make it the most complete and effective martial art in the world. Some older Jiu-jitsu schools only focused on one area of fighting (some practiced primarily standing techniques) and had been left without a realistic battlefield testing ground for hundreds of years. If you recall the history of Judo's beginning, you know that it was made up of mostly standing techniques at first, from Kito Ryu Jiu-jitsu and a few other styles. This alone was not enough, so the groundwork of Fusen Ryu was added, making it more complete. When you say "traditional" or "Japanese" Jiu-jitsu, you are referring to only one of these Jiu-jitsu styles, which is incomplete alone. When you say Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, you are referring to the best techniques from a wide variety of styles.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gene Simco
Jiu-Jitsu in the United States was underdeveloped compared to the Jiu-Jitsu in Brazil. Only now are they beginning to catch up, and they are still suffering from the inadequacies of the 'older' and more traditional schools of Jiu-Jitsu in this country. To give you an idea of what I mean, I'll tell you a little about my training. I earned a black belt in a classical style of Jiu-Jitsu, which taught all the Judo throws of the Kodokan and Aikijitsu (the grandfather of Aikido). It was a great art, but one that could not be used on anyone with skill effectively before complete mastery. I was subsequently defeated by a student of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu who was only at blue belt level, while I was a black belt in traditional Jiu-Jitsu. Why? Lack of realistic practice is the reason. There was too much of: "you stay perfectly still while I try an extravagant technique on you and you play along." There are many techniques which is where Judo is great, and some traditional schools teach techniques that were designed thousands of years ago whose applications have not been modified or thought about since. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is simple to learn, so simple that a dedicated student of one year can easily beat martial artists of other styles who have many years of experience.

Some styles of martial arts spend hundreds of hours working on a rigid stance and one hundred standing techniques that cannot possibly be mastered in a reasonable amount of time. I once interviewed Royce Gracie and he gave a response that supports this point quite well:

"We don't believe in teaching a ton of moves every class and the student walking away with limited knowledge. We prefer our students to know 20 techniques at 100%, than 100 techniques at 20%."

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu focuses on techniques that are easy to learn in a very short period of time. The techniques taught in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu are also effective and have been tested on knowledgeable martial artists who are not cooperating. A small amount of simple but high percentage techniques makes the difference. If all you do is practice five or six techniques, you will be very good at them in a year or so, but if you have to divide your time between a hundred or more techniques, you will most likely be a jack of all trades and a master of none in a year's time.

The differences in the two styles of Jiu-Jitsu are not necessarily in the technique, but in the practice and application. First of all, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu has a very sophisticated ground-game, where Japanese Jiu-Jitsu places importance on standing techniques, as does Judo. Judo as a sport does not allow leg locks, where Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu does. Sport rules for Judo dictate that if a player has been pinned by his/her opponent for twenty-five seconds, he or she will lose the match. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu has no time restraints on ground positions and stalling most often occurs while standing. Older styles of Jiu-Jitsu (often spelled jujutsu or jujitsu) are usually preceded with their style name or Ryu (the Japanese word for "style"). These Ryu of Jiu-Jitsu were developed long ago and have no sport application to allow them to develop technically. The lack of realistic practice is what makes some styles ineffective or obsolete.

To really understand the differences between Brazilian and Japanese Jiu-Jitsu, one must research the history of both arts. In particular the birthing of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu by Carlos Gracie, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu's founder, who was an avid boxer. Most Japanese Jiu-Jitsu fighters were studying traditional Karate strikes, which are much different from that of a boxer. Maeda, the man who introduced Gracie to Jiu-Jitsu, was also a student of Judo, which at the time was considered an updated version of Jiu-Jitsu, or Kano 's Jiu-Jitsu. As discussed previously, the Judo that the Gracie family was introduced to was a Judo whose focus had turned to ground fighting in recent years. This ground fighting came from only one style of Jiu-jitsu (Fusen Ryu), the other styles that made up Judo had not focused on ground work, so as their practice continued, they stayed to their traditional roots, which considered mainly of standing techniques. While older styles of Jiu-jitsu stuck to their core curriculums, Judo soon forgot about experience and turned its attention to gaining world wide exposure as an Olympic sport, which would eventually restrict the once great art and cause it to focus once again on primarily standing techniques.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a progressive style of Jiu-Jitsu; once a technique is developed and used in competition, other Jiu-Jitsu players begin to design counters to that technique, and counters to those counters, which allows Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to evolve freely. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu players do not prepare for the untrained opponent; they assume that their opponent may be more technical.

The problem with some 'older' styles of Jiu-Jitsu is the same problem with old cars, or anything that has not been updated or modified.

Comparing "old" Jiu-Jitsu to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is like comparing old cars to new. Both a Ford Model-T and a Ferrari will do the same job, but a Ferrari will do it more efficiently. The ability of Jiu-Jitsu teachers can be compared to the mechanics certified to work on these cars; if you take a mechanic from 1910 and show him a Ferrari, some things would look familiar, but he would not understand the new design and complexity of the modern variation without proper training.

So BJJ Is not only a new art but also introduces a new concept for martial arts. If you simple come to deny the work that Brazilians had done, then you must say that judo is same as aikido, kickboxing is a dream and birds invented airplanes while Wright brother's/Santos Dummont copied .

KillDozer- November 5, 2009 at 7:56 pm

831 Son and UFC fan, you both shut up. None of you got any skill and I'd beat the crap out of you 2 homos easy given a chance. Hell, you aren't even strong enough to hold my dick, get back to gym bitches.

Squirrelnuts- November 5, 2009 at 7:41 pm

did i miss something or did a travelling circus full of internet tough guys take up residence around here?

NOTSOB
They're really different, actually. Feudal JJ in Japan was designed to disarm and defeat armored opponents without a weapon of your own. When it landed in brazil a dude named Maeda began to beat the hell out of all comers every single night in regular clothes. He had to develop new techniques and holds to counter his opponents mobility. There's the difference. Feudal JJ was more about throws and death locks and was the begining of Judo (see Jiggoro Kano), BJJ is a live and evolving competition sport grappling. I'm sorry about the long comment, i'm just a jj nerd, and had to crash in on this.

UFC fan- November 5, 2009 at 3:55 pm

They don't allow cali-fags to fight in the UFC son.
How many times do I have to tell you to get back to work carrying the spit-bucket in that gym you work in.
why don't you tell everyone how you really broke your ankle, you got stepped on by brock lesner while trying to suck his cock.....come on fag fess up.

Darkside- November 5, 2009 at 3:40 pm

@831 Son
"One year boxing, 3 years muay thai, one and a half years BJJ."

That's it? Must be pretty young if that's all of the experience you have. If you're not just lying all together.

WuTangClan- November 5, 2009 at 3:21 pm

Jew

SupermanPunch- November 5, 2009 at 2:06 pm

Where can I get that sweater?!

831 Son- November 5, 2009 at 2:06 pm

You are such a little pussy. Just because your ass got told on the other post doesnt mean you have to cry like a bitch. And most of the auditioning is just talking, not even that much skill evaluating.

fACE7biter- November 5, 2009 at 1:57 pm

@831
Oh good god this guy stinks! Are you a blogging fat girl? This is the 2nd post in one day where you look like a total ass! Did you really say your "attitude" will win Dana White over? Do you like to think about Dana giving your hair a tussle while exclaiming "look at the heart of this kid, he's a real go-getter!" And then you're going to tell everyone how much better you would do? Were talking about TUF son, not day dreaming about careers in the UFC! No one cares about you or your mediocre skill set. I hope you re-break your ankle running from the cops on child pornography charges you ridiculous hayseed!

Juice- November 5, 2009 at 1:23 pm

@One Two

Michael Jordan also got cut from his HS basketball team.

NOTSOB- November 5, 2009 at 1:17 pm

how am i a moron, tell me a difference? just cuz a japanese guy went to brazil and taught brazilian people and put "brazilian on the front of JJ. makes it a totally diffeernt art form? NO!
NOoB

831 Son- November 5, 2009 at 1:16 pm

Wow you are a moron.

NOTSOB- November 5, 2009 at 1:11 pm

@831 son
shut up with BJJ there is no such thing. its all JJ.

BigCountrysCholesterol- November 5, 2009 at 1:09 pm

That armbar that Marcus pulled was fantastic. I have high hopes for him. He better not keep that chin dangling out though, or he will discover some real darkness.

831 Son- November 5, 2009 at 12:44 pm

I totally agree with steampunk. This season had weak fights and especially weak fighters. About two of them have mediocre cardio at best.

Once my ankle heals up and I finish physical therapy, Im for sure trying out for TUF for either MW's or LHW's. I bet my attitude and cardio alone can get me on the show considering how easy it is for these douchebags with no skill or cardio to get on. Although I am positive my skills will suffice. One year boxing, 3 years muay thai, one and a half years BJJ.